PC Saga (it won't turn on)

I’ll try to keep this brief. I bought my PC last March at Best Buy for about $3167. Look, I know a price tag doesn't guarantee quality, but still. It was a custom build, so every single part comes with a two-year warranty.

First, about two months ago, the screen just went black. I figured the GPU was dead, so I hauled the whole rig back to Best Buy. They sent it off to their service center in Washington, D.C., where they confirmed the graphics card (which cost $1333) had kicked the bucket. They swapped it for the exact same model and sent the PC back. The whole ordeal took about 17 days. Fine. I sucked it up, thinking that would be the end of the nightmare.

Then, about a month ago, the computer suddenly refused to turn on. No matter what I tried, nothing. Naturally, my first thought was the power supply. I swapped out the cables, but no luck. Since I didn't have a spare PSU lying around, I headed back to Best Buy again. I asked the guy there—before sending the whole thing off to NYC (because waiting for repairs there is a total nightmare, honestly, God help me)—if he could just test it with one of their power supplies. If it was just the PSU, I could save myself the headache and just send that in instead of the entire machine.

He did exactly that. He called me back a few hours later and said it wouldn't boot even with their power supply, so it had to go to Washington, D.C. Okay. So I wait another two weeks for them to do their thing, only to get the service report saying there was no issue found. They claimed they couldn't replicate the fault and that the PC was working perfectly. Great. Since I'm obviously an idiot who doesn't know how to press a power button, I just accepted it. I lugged it home, turned it on, and—eureka!—it works. Now all I can do is sit here and wait for the inevitable moment it fails again, because they didn't fix a damn thing.

And of course, it happened again. Yesterday. Now the same damn PC won't turn on. So, what now? What am I supposed to do? Sit here and cry? Wait a few days for it to "miraculously" fix itself? Go back to Best Buy and take it out on some employee who isn't even at fault? Send it to Washington, D.C. just to wait another 15 days like a fool, only to be told everything is fine again? Should I demand a refund or insist on a loaner PC while they "inspect" it? Any advice is welcome, because I'm seriously losing my mind here.

Man, I’m not entirely sure what else to tell you—the only thing that really comes to mind is that you should probably insist that Best Buy tests a replacement power supply right there in your hometown. You need to see if the machine boots up on the first try, because based on what you described, the PSU seems like the most likely culprit... Just make sure they don't call you later claiming they had to ship your rig all the way to Washington, D.C. for repairs. Honestly, it's a bit weird—doesn't Best Buy have a service center near you? That's strange..

Larry Ortiz5, you think it could be a CMOS power trip?

I’ve looked into just about everything regarding boot issues, but these things are almost always one-off problems... bad connection between the PSU and the motherboard, a short in the cables, a short on the board itself... who knows what else it could be or how much digging it takes to find it.

Larry Ortiz5 said:Man, I’m not entirely sure what else to tell you—the only thing that really comes to mind is that you should probably insist that Best Buy tests a replacement power supply right there in your hometown. You need to see if the machine boots up on the first try, because based on what you described, the PSU seems like the most likely culprit... Just make sure they don't call you later claiming they had to ship your rig all the way to Washington, D.C. for repairs. Honestly, it's a bit weird—doesn't Best Buy have a service center near you? That's strange..

I'm from Orlando. I have no clue why they don't handle repairs locally, but everything always gets sent to Washington, D.C.

Anyway, I wiped everything from the PC and let it sit overnight to cool down. Miraculously, it was back to life just as I was getting ready to head over to Best Buy to start an argument with them. Now it's working again. Until it breaks again, obviously.

It could definitely be the power supply, but while it was acting up, I was able to charge my phone just fine by plugging it into the port on the back of the case, so there was definitely power flowing. 🤔

Either it’s overheating, or your CMOS is totally fried... you could try pulling the battery and grabbing an identical one. They’re probably like 10-$6.75 bucks.

I don't know, honestly, could be that too. Could the peripherals be messing with things? For instance, I've got some pretty crappy speakers...

It’s possible... maybe try doing it without them..